Rat!
by Jemennuie
Summary: A chair definitely makes a good hiding place from an angry Dorcas Meadowes, right? In which there is a misunderstanding between Remus, Dorcas, and Peter about Peter's animagus form. Slight Remus/Dorcas.


A/N: This is set around during the First War, around 1980.

…

Remus sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it. The sun was just finishing coming over the horizon and, before Remus had tiptoed out of his bedroom to begin his morning routine, Dorcas had been sleeping peacefully in his bed. Her scream was likely just another nightmare, something that nearly all of the members of The Order of the Phoenix had been plagued with after Benjy Fenwick's death.

Remus had just picked up his toothbrush when the sound of Dorcas's scream rang through the apartment again and, feeling uneasy that perhaps it was not just another nightmare, Remus quickly strode into the adjacent room to find Dorcas standing on a table with her wand drawn.

"Are you okay?" Remus said, uncertainly drawing his wand as he quickly scanned the room.

"A bloody _rat_ just crawled across me!" Dorcas hotly exclaimed, gesturing with her wand. "I hate rats; if I could just — there it is!" With a loud _bang!_ she shot a yellow spark out of her wand that just missed a large rat. The rat squeaked and continued quickly scampering along the floor boards before disappearing underneath a chair, while the gears in Remus's mind slowly turned. Where on earth could a rat have come from? It had light brown fur that was tufted behind the ears, and Remus swore that it almost looked familiar.

"Peter!" he blurt out, before turning to Dorcas. "Have you seen Peter recently?"

"Your roommate Peter? Not since last night. It's pretty early, wouldn't he still be asleep?" she said irritably, jerking her head towards the hallway with two bedrooms. "Why on earth are you asking about Pettigrew?"

While Remus had not seen Peter's Animagus form as frequently as the other Marauders, the plain brown rat certainly looked like Peter, and Remus knew that Peter sometimes spent the night in his Animagus form – something to do with animals not having nightmares. At the same time, though, the Marauders had chosen to not reveal to the other Order members that they were Animagi, which meant that Remus couldn't answer Dorcas's question honestly. "I – er –"

"Bloody hell, get it away!" Dorcas interrupted with a shriek as the rat scrambled out from underneath the chair it had been hiding under.

"Don't hurt him!" Remus yelped as she lifted her wand to cast another hex at the rat. Without thinking, Remus instinctively reached out and grabbed the rat.

"You're touching that thing?" Dorcas recoiled with a disgusted expression when he began protectively holding the rat in his hands. "It might have rabies! Or the bubonic plague or – or other diseases!"

"It doesn't. I mean, it's, uh – it's a pet. Peter's pet rat," he fumblingly lied in response, and Dorcas raised an eyebrow.

"Peter has a pet rat?"

"Er – yes, he keeps it in his room. It must have escaped its cage," Remus replied, distracted by the rat's squirming movements as it tried to escape from his grip. Directing his words to the rat, he sharply reprimanded it, "Stop it! You're okay now, you're safe. No one's going to hurt you."

She was now staring at Remus with a baffled expression on her face. "You're talking like it can _understand_ you."

"It's a very intelligent rat," he mumbled, still trying to gain a firm grip on the rat. There was a sharp pain in his finger when it bit him and he yelled, "Ow! Peter!"

"Peter's rat is named Peter?" Dorcas interrupted disbelievingly.

"Um. Sirius named it. He thought it would be funny."

"That does sound like Sirius," she said, rolling her eyes. Her expression relaxed and, running a hand through her hair, she absentmindedly began, "Alright, you go take care of Peter's pet rat. If I'm already up I might as well stop by my flat before floo-ing to work. Thanks for having me." She gave Remus a peck on the cheek and petted the rat before picking up her coat and purse and walking through the door.

Remus heaved a sigh of relief once she had left and lightly scratched the rat on its head. "Don't worry, Peter. Everything worked out alright. Dorcas doesn't know you're an Animagus and no one got hurt, so everything's okay. You can transform back, now."

The rat didn't respond immediately, and Remus flinched at the sound of the door's wards. Shaking his head at the thought that Dorcas must have forgotten something, he went to answer the door and was surprised when it sprung open of its own accord to reveal the person standing there.

"Peter?" Remus exclaimed, gaping at the person standing on the door step.

"Has Dorcas left yet? When she came over last night, I didn't want to bother you two so I spent the night at James's place," Peter said, wiping his feet on the doormat.

"Peter?" Remus repeated, gaping between the short, chubby man standing on the doorstep and the rat in his hands.

"Yes?" Peter said with a slightly confused frown, closing the door behind him as he entered the flat. His confused frown deepened when he noticed the rat in Remus's hands and, looking between the rat and Remus's face he said, "Why are you holding a rat?"

"I – uh – " Remus continued looking between the rat and Peter, dumbstruck. "I thought this rat was you."

"I see," Peter looked away and gave an awkward cough. "Er - why are you holding 'me'?"

"Because I – Wait, what is this rat then?" Remus interrupted himself, alarmed.

"I noticed a mouse hole in the kitchen a couple of days ago, so probably…" Peter looked away again and gave another awkward cough.

"You mean I'm holding a wild rat. A wild, diseased rat," Remus said numbly, glancing down at the rat still in his hands.

"It may not be diseased?" Peter said helpfully.

"But - Merlin!" Remus exclaimed, immediately dropping the rat as the full realization struck him that he was holding a wild rat.

The rat scampered away in the direction of the kitchen, and Peter watched its path before turning back to Remus and hesitatingly saying with a worried frown, "Should I bother asking again why you were holding 'me'?"

Remus gave an exhausted sigh in response and squeezed his temples. "No. Just - no. It's only 8 in the morning and this day has already been too long. I'm going back to bed. Good night," he said, leaving the room.

Peter quizzically looked after him, before shaking his head. Maybe he just didn't want to know.

…

A/N: Written for the First Sentence Challenge at the HPFC,in which my first sentence is "[Name] sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it." Also, many thanks to Someone aka Me for beta-reading.

Reviews and/or constructive criticism are always appreciated, especially if you favorite the piece :)


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